


In the Water

by Pomelofangirl



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, Freeform, Holding Hands, Introspection, M/M, Rinharu Week, S3 spoilers, connected by water, day 3 water
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 03:30:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17072690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pomelofangirl/pseuds/Pomelofangirl
Summary: They were connected by water since a long time ago and probably will remain so for a long time.





	In the Water

**Author's Note:**

> Back at it again with the sappy rinharu's because of Rh week :3
> 
> I wanted to write this ever since s3 started airing so here it is.
> 
> Thanks so much to my dear friend Eleen for the beta of this, because thanks to her this fic is so amazing.
> 
> Enjoy <3

Water connected them. It was unavoidable. Both of them knew that since a long time ago, after all their first meeting was in the water of the pool of that tournament when they were 9.

 

For Haruka, water was very important. He used it as a refuge and advisor in everything, and especially in matters concerning Rin.

 

Water was also an escape from his everyday mundane life. A way to cool down after the stress of life's responsibilities. This was why he didn't want to be involved into swimming professionally at first, because doing what you like can end up being just like working all day every day, and Haru wasn't about that life.

 

He used to think that a dream is not something you can just find. It doesn't work like that. A dream should be something you already had for a really long time. Like Rin did with his dream, cherish it and then try to reach the stars from the earth and come back. In other words, go a long way to achieve it. You have to work hard for it and give up something to gain something else, and not just wait for it to fall from heaven.

 

And yet, it didn't fall from the sky, but rather from the starting block at the aquatic Centre in Sydney, but that doesn't really make as much of a difference, does it?

 

 

Plus Rin was there, next to him. And that changed many things.

 

Perhaps their swimming in the Aquatic Centre was the first time he felt it. Of course, he had known for a while that he and Rin were magically connected in some way, be it red string of fate, or fate itself, but there was something that connected them. It's because of that something that they were supposed to meet on the train tracks in middle school. It was that something that made Rin go into the old ITSC building on the same night that Haru and his friends were there, so they could reunite after years.

 

That something made Haru feel Rin's presence through the water. And it sounded weird, unbelievable even, but he was pretty sure that Rin felt something like that as well.

 

Perhaps in the future they would develop this into a proper water telepathy, and the common means of communication would not be necessary when it comes to the two of them. It is possible, after all, that both of them are planning to swim for some time yet. They are young, beautiful and strong, and the world opens up before them.

 

But for now, this weird feeling that Rin is always there next to him has got to be enough.

 

Ever since his first swim meet in the university, the feeling grew more and more. That freestyle race was something new. “An experience you didn't have before” as Rin would say.

 

Not that he is a person who thinks about Rin 24/7 (and even if he is, he doesn't have to tell that to anyone), Haruka waited for 3 hours before he sent a cryptic and vague message to Rin, something like:

 

_Haruka Nanase: I thought about you today._

 

A message that is very cryptic and asking many unsaid questions.

Likewise, Rin answered as cryptically and vaguely:

 

_Rin: I had a feeling you would._

 

Which doesn't mean anything. At all. Rin is in Sydney, Haruka is in Tokyo and that's how it's going to be for the next few years. Although Sydney isn't completely on the other side of the world, it is still, far away from him.

 

Haruka didn't always feel this weird presence of Rin whenever he swam. Perhaps it might be that both of them needed to be in the pool at the same time or something. Maybe they will test it one day.

 

But as the year went on, and the stress with the first year of university and practice as well as this nagging thing with Ikuya went on, Haru forgot a bit about their connection in the water.

 

And then Rin visited him. Because of course Rin would visit him, we're talking about Rin Matsuoka who'd take you to Australia in a heartbeat right away if you needed it. Or, in this case hop onto the nearest shinkansen for three hours just to see that Haruka is fine.

 

“The only thing that hasn't changed is that I still want to swim with you, Haru.” Rin said with a warm soft voice, and Haru couldn't believe it.

 

Because how come he really said this?

 

Haruka just lost to the world's best swimmer in freestyle and Rin, the amazing Rin who is better than Haru in everything that isn't swimming 100m freestyle, says that he still wants to swim with him? To be with him?

 

Impossible.

 

Haru turned his gaze away and looked to the left. Then, after a while he looked into the setting sun, with Rin there, beside him, and didn't say anything. In that setting, Rin shyly took Haru's hand and held it.

 

Haruka didn't let go until they came back into the building.

 

The next time he felt that unavoidable bond with Rin was the evening before the High School nationals. Haru knew that the will to see his old team is but a dream. He's a serious swimmer aiming for the world.

 

But no. Not this time. There are more important things in life than tournaments. The last lap he swam as fast as if he was racing Rin next to him, and as he got out of the pool he knew what he had to do.

 

“Coach. We need to talk.”

 

As soon as he got into the locker room, he wasn't really surprised that the one calling his phone was Rin.

 

“Yo Haru. I wanted to talk to you.” as Rin said this, his voice was too happy for a guy that considered friendship the most important thing, and for someone who was going to miss the race of his younger colleagues tomorrow.

 

“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you as well.”

 

“Coincidence after coincidence.” Still smiling Rin told him about his plan for tomorrow, a plan that was very similar to Haru's own.

 

“So, see you tomorrow.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

After their trip to Tokyo and back, the water telepathy developed more and more.

 

Up to the point that on their first race in a world's tournament, they knew who won before they finished.

 

It was Haru, and when Rin saw it, he hugged him. Haru hugged him back and they stayed like this for a while.

 

It was a start of something new.

 

Perhaps a start of new sights, that none of them had seen before, but they knew that they were going to see them together.

**Author's Note:**

> Pleas comment and tell me what you think of this :3


End file.
